


Walking Home

by bela013



Series: Fantine x Javert [4]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-14
Updated: 2013-04-14
Packaged: 2017-12-08 10:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/760147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bela013/pseuds/bela013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Javert brings young Cosette to her mother at M-sur-M.</p><p>Follow up to 'Trail'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking Home

She was trailing behind him again. Even with her small hand clasped in his, she was still always a few steps back, always making him stretch out his arm to the wrong way, almost twisting it out of his body.

Knowing that there was no way that they would reach their destination in time, Javert kneels down to pick her up. And with much too eager hands, she grabs onto his lapel, burying her head in his neck and wrapping her little legs on his middle. At least she was clean now.

After their first night, when he discovered that trying to reason with the girl was next to impossible and that if she was to find out that he was not her real father, she would sure scream for whoever was to hear that he was trying to steal her. He knew what this meant, he would have to act like like her father, maybe not a dotting one, but one that would not let his child walk around in rags in the middle of the snow.

The dress that Cosette now wore was not a new one, this was not even a question that he shouldn't spend his money on a child that wasn't even his, he simply did not have the money on himself for that. Could he even use such an excuse anymore? After all, he was already spending his money on the medical care of a woman that wasn't his wife either.

Tugging on his coat, Cosette brings him out of his musings only to deliver him her rag doll, silently asking him to carry it for her. He merely tilted his head, indicating his breast pocket, this was kind of situation was not new to them, so she answered by placing her doll inside it with one hand while the other still had a hold onto his neck.

The doll was another matter entirely. She did not ask for it. And he wasn't expected to give it to her, even if he was to pose as her so called father. There were plenty of fathers who didn't buy dolls to their daughters.

Even so, she stared at it in the market when he was buying them a couple of things for them to eat during the long ride back home. And that was after he bought her clothes, so nobody gave her a second look as she clutched his leg and spied the market around them, in fact, he could say that many around them ignored the little girl attached to his leg, for they were far too busy with their own children, attached to their own legs.

He looked around them from under the brim of his cap, a habit that he developed after so many years on his work for the police. Javert expected her to admire the expensive doll, the ones with their porcelain faces and life like hair. Ones that looked like her, something he could only see after he cleaned her face with a wet cloth and brushed her hair.

The blonde girl did in fact, look at them all, but her gaze only remained on the small one, with hair made out of yellow cheep wool, and a dress much like hers, only made out of different sized patches of the same color.

Giving her an apple for a small distraction, he purchased the doll on a impulse, as Cosette sunk her teeth in the apple and smiled to the woman who just sold them to me. He keep the doll inside the breast pocket of his coat, not sure of the procedures of presenting things to children, let alone a child that he pretended was his.

It would only be on the carriage that would take them to M-sur-M that he presented the girl with the doll. He told himself that it was just a trinket to keep her quite, or that it was mere pity on his part. But the tears that came out of her eyes when she first held the doll said that he might have reasons that were other that the practical ones, even the practical ones were still true.

He remembered his years as a child, watching the vendors at the market, with their small boats inside shiny bottles and how he always wanted to have one. And how it felt when his mother didn't just gave him one of those impossible bottles, she got him one that was half finished, with the little parts and pincer that was required to finish it. To this day, that boat sat on top of his mantle piece.

Putting his musings away, as they now were a mere block away from the doctor's house, Javert looks down to check on the girl, who seamed to be asleep on his shoulder, the fabric of his coat crumpled in her fist.

There was no going back now. He would have to face Fantine, explain to her why he was in possession of her daughter and why was Cosette calling him father. Only disaster came to his mind as he tried to think of a way to tell her all this.

She would not be happy about the treatment of her daughter. He heard her story, he knew the countless things that she did for her. The hair that was cut so her daughter could have a coat. Images of the girl, dressed in rags, filthy and angry. She too would raise hell when she finds that he lied to her.

Unconsciously, Javert tightened his grip on Cosette. She wasn't of all bad. She obeyed him, never walked away when he was busy talking with an adult, instead, she just stood by him, gripping his pant leg, or even the tail of his coat, she never interrupted him when he was busy either. By the kids that he often saw at the market, and the ones from richer avenues alike, he could say that she more well behaved than most, even if she had a bit of a temper and a good swing arm.

This was good. Fantine would be able to keep on working at home, with no worries for a daughter that was too far away or at home, in the way of her work. They would most definitely clash, and he was sure that he didn't want to be nowhere near them when that happens. He shouldn't worry though, once Fantine got herself a clean bill of health, they would be out of his life for good.

And that should definitely bring him some sort of relief. This wasn't his family, his duty towards them was non existent. He didn't even had to try and stop Fantine all those days back. He could have just arrested her, with no care for her plies of mercy and sad stories about her and her child.

Javert could now deliver Cosette to her mother, walk away and still remain with a guilt free conscience. Instead, he stands on the porch of the doctors house, holding Cosette and wondering how he got himself into this whole thing.


End file.
